U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones climbing around 400 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 1.22% to 33,275.56 while the NASDAQ rose 2.73% to 10,491.68. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 1.89% to 3,854.88. Check This Out: 5 Materials Stocks That Are Diving - And May Rally

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares jumped by 2.9% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cardlytics Inc (NASDAQ:CDLX), up 17%, and Skillz Inc. (NYSE:SKLZ), up 12%.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.5%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims increased by 9,000 to 225,000 in the week ending December 24, compared to market expectations of 225,000.

Equities Trading UP

• Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOTH) shares shot up 139% to $10.50 after the FDA accepted the IND application for HT-001.
• Shares of Freight Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:FRGT) got a boost, shooting 18% to $0.27 after the company announced it now supports cross-border logistics requirements for a global electric-electronic equipment company.
• Nuwellis, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUWE) shares were also up, gaining 46% to $13.37. Nuwellis announced an exclusive U.S. license and distribution agreement for SeaStar Medical Holding’s Selective Cytopheretic Device (SCD) for acute kidney injury (AKI) in children.

Equities Trading DOWN

• F-star Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSTX) shares tumbled 38% to $4.22. The Committee on Foreign Investment issued an interim order preventing closing of pending merger with Invox Pharma Limited, preventing the consummation of the transactions pursuant to the merger agreement citing unresolved national security risks.
• Shares of Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) were down 15% to $52.92. Cal-Maine Foods reported downbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales topped expectations.
• Titan Medical Inc. (NASDAQ:TMDI) was down, falling 15% to $0.63. Titan Medical announced receipt of Nasdaq listing determination regarding delisting.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $78.11 while gold traded up 0.4% at $1,822.80.

Silver traded up 1.5% to $24.19 on Thursday while copper fell 0.3% to $3.8315.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.68%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.21% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.72%. The German DAX gained 1.05%, French CAC 40 gained 0.97% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.2%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone increased 4.1% year-over-year in November. Retail sales in Spain fell 0.6% year-over-year in November.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Thursday, with the Japan’s Nikkei dropping 0.94%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.79%, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.44%.

India reported a record current account gap of $36.4 billion during the third quarter compared to a $9.7 billion gap in the year-ago period. Imports to Hong Kong fell by 20.3% to $387.1 billion in November, while exports dipped by 24.1% to $360 billion. Hong Kong’s trade deficit increased to $27.1 billion in November from $11.1 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

US initial jobless claims increased by 9,000 to 225,000 in the week ending December 24, compared to market expectations of 225,000.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 102,407,740 cases with around 1,117,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,678,930 cases and 530,690 deaths, while France reported over 39,245,930 COVID-19 cases with 161,710 deaths. In total, there were at least 663,618,220 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,692,200 deaths.